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Behind the Numbers: Arsenal hat-trick heroes

This week our statistician Josh James takes a look at Arsenal's hat-tricks.

Robin van Persie's hat-trick on Saturday was the 226th scored in the history of the Club, and the 33rd under Arsène Wenger.

It was Van Persie's third treble for the Club (all scored since January last year), and he is one of 97 players to claim the match ball in an Arsenal shirt.

It was also the seventh hat-trick scored at Emirates Stadium; others were notched by Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Vela, Nicklas Bendtner (2) and Theo Walcott.

Those have come at a rate of one every 23.3 games, which is very similar to the Club's overall hat-trick rate of one every 22.9 games throughout history.

The first senior hat-trick scored at the Emirates was Adebayor's against Derby County on September 22, 2007, in a 5-0 Premier League win. However, Jay Simpson had actually achieved the feat prior to that in an FA Youth Cup game - in February 2007 - when Arsenal beat Aaron Ramsey's Cardiff City 3-2.

Arsenal have never conceded a hat-trick at Emirates Stadium. In fact, the last opponent to score three away to Arsenal was Mick Quinn for Coventry City in an opening day 3-0 win at Highbury in 1993/94 – some 368 home matches ago.

During that time, Arsenal have scored 14 hat-tricks of their own on the road.

The most recent was at Chelsea in October, scored by Van Persie. The Dutchman, now 10th top scorer in the Club's history with 123 goals, still has a long way to go to claim his place among the Club's all-time hat-trick hitters. Jack Lambert (Arsenal 1926-1933) and Jimmy Brain (1923-1931) scored the most trebles for the Gunners - 12 each, followed closely by Ted Drake (1934-1945) and Ian Wright (1991-1998), who each scored 11.

Lambert's trios came at an incredible rate of one every 13.4 games, including seven in the 1930/31 season alone. It's clear, though, that hat-tricks were more plentiful during the pre-war era. In the last 50 seasons Arsenal have netted 82 hat-tricks, compared to 122 in the 50 seasons preceding that. That makes Ian Wright's rate of a hat-trick every 26.2 games in the modern era even more impressive.

Looking at all 25 players who have scored three or more hat-tricks for the Club, the man with the best games/hat-tricks ratio is Henry (Harry) King, who scored one every 9.75 matches. In fact, in 1914, he scored the first ever hat-trick at Highbury, meaning Henry King claimed the first match ball there, and King (Thierry) Henry the last (v Wigan on May 7, 2006).

That first Highbury hat-trick came against Grimsby Town, who along with Middlesbrough and Leicester City (formerly Leicester Fosse), have been on the receiving end of the most Arsenal hat-tricks (10).

Arsenal hat-tricks

Player

Hat-tricks

Games per hat-trick

Jack Lambert

12

13.4

Jimmy Brain

12

19.3

Ted Drake

11

16.7

Ian Wright

11

26.2

Thierry Henry

8

46.9

David Herd

7

25.7

David Jack

7

29.7

Doug Lishman

7

34.9

John Radford

6

80.3

Ronnie Rooke

5

18.8

Joe Baker

5

70.2

Henry King

4

9.75

Tommy Shanks

4

11

Reg Lewis

4

44

Cliff Holton

4

54.3

Alan Smith

4

86.8

Joe Hulme

4

93.5

Cliff Bastin

4

99

Bob Turnbull

3

22

Malcolm Macdonald

3

36

Jackie Henderson

3

37

Emmanuel Adebayor

3

47.3

Tim Coleman

3

65.3

Robin van Persie

3

87

Alan Sunderland

3

93.7

Teams hat-tricks scored against

Grimsby Town

10

Leicester City/Fosse

10

Middlesbrough

10

Liverpool

9

Bolton Wanderers

8

Everton

8

Sheffield Wednesday

8

Blackburn Rovers

7

Sunderland

7

Blackpool

6

Manchester City

6

The vast majority of Arsenal's hat-tricks (85 per cent) have come in league matches. On average, the Gunners score a hat-trick once every 22.2 games in the league, compared to once every 23.2 in the League Cup and once every 24.6 FA Cup matches. Hat-tricks in European football are the most rare, occurring once every 38.8 fixtures.

Perhaps surprisingly, Arsenal have only scored one hat-trick in FA Cup football under Arsène Wenger – Nicklas Bendtner against Leyton Orient last season.

One of Arsenal's current players – Yossi Benayoun – is the only man who has scored hat-tricks in the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup - though none of those were in Arsenal colours.

The 226 all-time hat-tricks include 34 instances when a player actually scored more than three in a game. This includes the five goals Tony Woodcock netted away to Villa in 1983 and the seven that Ted Drake famously bagged against the same opposition, also at Villa Park, in December 1935. Jack Lambert (at home to Sheffield United on December 24, 1932) was the only other player to score five in a game for the Gunners.

The most recent four-timer was achieved by Andrey Arshavin when he scored all four in a 4-4 draw at Liverpool on April 21, 2009. That was also the last example of Arsenal not winning a game in which they had scored a hat-trick. The last Arsenal player to score a hat-trick yet finish on the losing team Jimmy Brain, when Derby County beat Arsenal 4-3 at Highbury way back on February 4, 1928.

Behind The Numbers

Hat-tricks by competition

Games per hat-trick

Overall

Under Arsène Wenger

League

22.2

22.5

FA Cup

24.6

80

League Cup

23.2

18.7

Europe

38.8

52

Total

22.9

26.8

The 33 hat-tricks in the Arsène Wenger era have arrived once every 26.8 games, and were scored by 17 different players.

There have been 10 instances of two hat-tricks being scored in the same game (and one game that featured three Arsenal hat-tricks, in 1892). The most recent was May 7, 2003 when Robert Pires and Jermaine Pennant disputed the match ball in a 6-1 Premier League win over Southampton. That match, incidentally, kicked off the all-time 49 game unbeaten run.

Arsenal have won 30 of the 32 games in which they have scored hat-tricks under Arsène Wenger. The aggregate score from those matches is 147-31.In 24 of the matches the hat-trick(s) have not been the only goals of the game for Arsenal, with the team going on to score six or more on eight occasions.

There were a few other notable stats to arise from Saturday's win over Blackburn.

The 7-1 scoreline was the biggest league win at Emirates Stadium, and the seventh time the team had scored six or more at the venue.

Thierry Henry's injury-time strike was his 228th for the Club, his ninth at Emirates Stadium, and the 350th goal overall the team has scored there. The milestone came in the 163rd Emirates fixture (average of 2.15 goals per game) and the goals were scored by 43 different players (excluding own goals).

Henry is also the oldest player to score for us in the league this season (at 34 years and 171 days), while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (18 years and 173 days) is the youngest. He is also our second-ever youngest Premier League scorer, after Cesc Fabregas. For more stats on Arsenal's youngest scorers, click here.

HIGHEST SCORING GAMES at Emirates Stadium

Date

Opposition

Competition

Score

Scorers

04/02/2012

Blackburn

Premier League

7-1

Van Persie 3, Oxlade-Chamberlain 2, Arteta, Henry

23/12/2006

Blackburn

Premier League

6-2

Gilberto, Adebayor, Flamini, van Persie 2, Hleb

04/10/2009

Blackburn

Premier League

6-2

Vermaelen, Fabregas, Arshavin, van Persie, Walcott, Bendtner

29/10/2008

Tottenham

Premier League

4-4

Silvestre, Gallas, van Persie, Adebayor

23/10/2007

Slavia Prague

Champions League

7-0

Fabregas 2, Hubacek (og), Walcott 2, Hleb, Bendtner

23/09/2008

Sheffield United

Carling Cup

6-0

Bendtner 2, Vela 3, Wilshere

21/08/2010

Blackpool

Premier League

6-0

Walcott 3, Arshavin, Chamakh, Diaby

15/09/2010

Sporting Braga

Champions League

6-0

Fabregas 2, Arshavin, Chamakh, Vela 2

Josh James also provides the stats for the Arsenal Analysis pages of the matchday programme. To subscribe, or buy online, click here.

Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source

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